A/N: Honestly, all of your reviews made me smile so much. I never get tired of hearing what you all have to say, and it's so refreshing, now that I have the time to do this on a regular basis. So here we go, chapter 21! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
…
Rei burst through the doors of the hotel looking like a wild animal as he dodged tenants in the lobby. His hair wrap had come loose and his long, dark hair was now flying out behind him like a black, silk scarf. His head band was missing and tiny beads of sweat were trailing down the sides of his face. His golden eyes were slit down the middle in fierce determination and one of the sleeves of his jacket had slipped off his shoulder. He was a mess, but he was still breathing.
Everyone watched in horror as the young teenager leapt off of the sidewalk and straight into on-coming traffic. Someone screamed as a taxi came baring down on him, but he'd managed to dodge it. He kept running, weaving in and out of cars, horns blaring, people yelling at him—at the last second he jumped into the air and rolled across the hood one last taxi. Hitting the sidewalk, he was up and running again before anyone had a chance to come out of shock. Maybe they had all day to stand around and wait for a light to turn green.
Rei didn't.
Now he was only minutes away. Throwing himself at the staircase, he took the steps two at a time, grabbing the banister at the top to push himself faster. Running down the hallway, he fumbled for his key. Finally sliding it through the lock, he barely waited for the 'click' of the door unlocking before shoving it open, the heavy portal slamming shut behind him.
"Kai! Are you here? Tala! Somebody answer me!"
…
Kai's hands were shaking as he looked over his shoulder at his best friend. Tala was staring at the phone, his ice blue eyes wide open and afraid. He was trembling. Kai glanced back at the phone before crawling unsteadily over to his friend.
"Tala? Tala, listen to me, what happened?"
He cursed under his breath when the redhead didn't answer him, didn't even blink. Taking Tala by the shoulders he opened his mouth to try again when he heard Rei's voice from downstairs.
"Rei? We're upstairs!" he called loudly. After a few seconds passed he could hear his boyfriend thundering up the stairs.
"Kai? Kai!" Rei cried, opening the door. The slender Russian took in his appearance and furrowed his brows.
"Rei, hold on a second, help me get Tala on the bed."
The neko-jin shut his mouth suddenly, finally noticing Tala.
"Oh my god…what happened?" he asked, bending down with Kai to pick Tala up and set him gently on the bed.
"I think he's in shock," Kai muttered, looking over his friend's vacant eyes, and shallow breathing. "Come with me downstairs, I'll explain while we grab some things."
Rei nodded dumbly, his heart hammering in his chest. Everything was going from bad to worse. Following Kai out of the door, he swallowed, gathering his nerves.
"Kai, I have some things to tell you too," he croaked. Kai glanced at him, and Rei could see the fear in his eyes. He knew.
"Alright," he answered weakly. "Let's just…get some water…and stuff, for Tala."
Rei slipped his hand into Kai's gently, lacing their fingers together. He grasped the Chinese teen's hand so tightly then Rei thought he'd cut off the blood flow to his fingers. Gently he put a reassuring hand on his lovers forearm.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. One minute Bryan was on the phone with Tala…as soon as I stepped into the room…" he trailed off, his features becoming pained, as if he didn't want to think about it.
They made it to the kitchen before Kai was able to continue.
"…someone fired a gun. We heard it through the phone…and then…nothing…" he had to hold his breath for a few minutes to regain his composure. When he looked at Rei his throat was tight again.
"I don't know what happened."
Rei was looking at the ground, his eyes incredibly distraught and clouded over.
"It's all my fault," he breathed, sniffing.
Kai blinked. "What do you mean?" he asked, pulling away from Rei to look at him in the face.
"It's all my fault," he replied, louder. "One of my co-workers…the girl who was handling the paperwork for my story…I think…I think she's working for your Grandfather."
…
Max slipped the last comic on the shelf before casually carrying the next box over to the manga section. Opening the box, he started placing them on the shelves smiling as he did. Grinning, he looked over his shoulder when he felt Tyson come up behind him.
"You didn't have to do this you know, Maxie." The bluenette blushed. "Why'd you give Diachi the day off anyway?"
"It was part of my secret plot to spend the whole day with you," he smiled, planting a sweet kiss on his boyfriend's cheek.
"But all we're doing is working!" Tyson laughed. Max shrugged.
"We're still working together aren't we? Besides, I like the thought of seeing your manga on these shelves someday."
"Our manga," Tyson grinned. "Which reminds me, we should start laying out the first pages with the dialogue we came up with last night."
Max nodded in agreement, tossing the empty cardboard box into the pile stacked next to the now completely filled bookshelves.
"Sounds good. Where's it going to open up?"
Tyson threw his arm over Max's slender shoulders, throwing his hand out in front of them as if showing off the a beautiful view of the horizon.
"The Kinomiya Dojo of course! Tyson, world-champion Beyblader in the making, is just your average Joe, until he—"
"Unlocks the secret of Dragoon!" Max chimed in, giggling.
"Well take the fun out of it," the bluenette mock pouted. Max leaned up, kissing Tyson for a few long moments to make up for it.
"Now come on," the blonde smiled at him through his wispy bangs. "Let's go bring these boxes out back."
The two trudged out the back door of the comic shop each carrying a pile of boxes in their arms, chatting good-naturedly about pointless things. When they reached the garbage bins out back, they dumped their boxes and began to head back for the door. Max reached out his hand, waiting for Tyson to take it.
But Tyson never had the chance.
…
When they'd returned to the room, Rei and Kai had found Tala asleep—they assumed he'd passed out during the time that they'd taken to get some water and dishtowel filled with some ice. Kai was sitting next to him on the bed, looking extremely tired and worried as he applied the make-shift ice pack to Tala's brow. Rei fidgeted with the glass of water at his side.
His lover sighed.
"Tell me again, what happened exactly?"
Rei swallowed, unable to miss the tinge of just barely controlled anger in Kai's voice.
"I came into work, just like normal. Delilah met me on the stairs and told me that the Chief had to talk to me. That's the last anyone has seen her. Kenny wanted to call the police, but I told him to wait, so he made up an explanation for the staff."
"And you think she's working with Volaire." He stated flatly. The Chinese teen nodded, even though Kai wasn't looking at him.
"The day after the files were stolen from my home computer, she took the files directly from my work as well and took a vacation to Yar…Yaro—"
"Yaroslavl?" Kai asked, turning to him with a horrified look on his face.
"Yeah, I think that was it," Rei answered, looking pained. "Kai…? What is it?"
For a long time, his lover didn't answer. He turned to face Tala again, brushing back his fiery bangs to reposition the ice on his forehead.
"I don't think she's working for Voltaire," he answered weakly, after another moment. "Boris has a lab in Yaroslavl."
Rei opened his mouth to respond, reaching out a hand to Kai when suddenly heavy knocking on the door startled them both.
"Police! Open up!"
…
"Are the detectives making their rounds?" Chief of police, Stanley Dickenson, asked, surveying the crime scene.
"They are sir," said the tiny policewoman next to him, as she led her commanding officer towards the scene. "We are currently investigating the friends of both victims. Neither of them had any record of family in the area, but we are contacting closest relatives by phone first."
"Good, thank you Emily."
The young woman nodded. As they approached, a tall African-American officer pulled away from the group.
"Report," Stanley nodded to Eddy, who immediately turned and gestured towards a small area with a large garbage bin against the wall.
"It seems that the two victims were on their way out of the building, indicated here," he began, waving a gloved hand at the door that stood ajar at the back of the building.
"Presumably to take out the trash; on their way back in they were confronted here," he pointed again at a small blood stain on the pavement, marked off by orange cones. "Forensics matched the blood to a nineteen year old out-of-college student, Max Tate. He probably fought back when his attacker struck."
Mr. Dickenson nodded gravely. "I understand that one of the victims was left behind?"
Eddy nodded, pointing with his pen towards a larger blood stain a few feet away from the door by the wall, accompanied by fresh blood splatter on the side of the building.
"Tyson Kinomiaya. He owns the comic shop—some kid making his way up the alley to buy a new manga found him about ten, maybe fifteen minutes after the shooting. Ballistics is running a match on the slugs we pulled right now."
"And nobody witnessed the attack?"
Eddy sighed, wiping his forehead with the back of his gloved hand.
"Tentatively we're assuming that Max was the intended target, and our friend Tyson got in the way. So he took a slug in the shoulder and the attacker made off with the other kid. The gun was probably silenced…this is a pretty dense area of the city. Someone would have heard the shot go off otherwise. An ambulance took him up to the local emergency room."
"Right," Mr. Dickenson nodded. "Get this wrapped up. I want answers by the end of the day."
…
A/N: Um…don't kill me? Hehehehe…
